O Give thanks to the Lord of Lords: For His mercy endures for ever!

What’s Your Passion?

How do You Want to Be Remembered?

As we pointed out in the last post, we can only live one day and that day is today. However, that does not mean that we shouldn’t think about where we would like to be in the future. I like to think of thinking about the future as “tomorrow thinking.” Tomorrow thinking can help us determine what your passions are.

Do you kno what your passions are? In other words, what is it that makes you excited to get up every morning? What is it that you know you have to do in this lifetime?

Or as Pablo Picasso once stated. “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.”

Goal setting is an important aspect of living today, and what goal is more important that the goal of living your life to the fullest? As an author, I have discovered that it is easier to write a book when I know how it will end. It is the same wiht life. If I know I want to live my life to end a certain way, I can more easily write goals that reflect those values that I have placed on my life because I know how I want others to preceive my life at the end of my life. Here are two exercises that I am doing to help me determine what I would like for my life long achievements.

Writing Your Own Obituary

Dream for a moment about what you want people to say when you are no longer a part of this world. Imagine that your body is in a casket and that one of your family members has been assigned to write your obituary. What would you want the obituary to say?

First, consider how you would like to leave this world. Do you want to die peacefully but suddenly in your sleep? Do you want to die surrounded by loved ones? Do you want to die at ripe old age while doing something adventurous? What age would you be when you pass?

Consider how you would like your relationships to be when you leave this world. Would you be married? Divorced from your current spouse? Would you be married to someone else? If so, what would this person be like? Would you have the same number of children?

What would you want to be known for? What would be your income level? Who have you worked for? Who would you be working for? If you were over 62 would you retire? Would you retire at an even younger age? Would you be known as a great speaker or author? Would you be a world class philanthropist? A famous person? What would you be famous for? Imagine yourself in the best possible light. Imagine the best case scenario. Would you be at the top of your company, or would you own your own company?

Write everything down no matter how outrageous. Now, look at what you have written. Have you learned something about what you desire? If you want to be an adventurer, does your current life reflect that? What can you do today to make that a reality? If having your family around when you pass means a lot to you, are you maintaining good relationships with your family? If you want to live to a ripe old age, are you maintaining good health habits that increase the possibility of living a long healthy life? If your current relationships aren’t working, what can you do to improve them? How close are you now to what you want to be known for? What can you do today to begin working toward that reality?

Writing your Bucket List

Have you watched the Bucket List movie? Definitely makes you think about what you want out of life. Writing your own bucket list is a great way to discover what you really want out of life. As you learn from the movie, what others want for you are not necessarily what you want. Discovering what you really want helps disipate real death bed regrets.

Now that you have written how you want to appear to others, write out your bucket list. Your bucket list if you remember has to do with what you want to do before you die. Do you want to earn six figures or more per year? Do you want to travel? Would you like to learn languages so that you can speak the native language of the places where you go? Do you want to write a book or even a book series? Do you want to teach or speak in front of a large crowd? Do you want to go bungie jumping or slide down a zipline? Do you want to learn to ski or jump out of an airplane? Perhaps you might even want to learn to fly one. Do you want to have a better relationship with your family members? Would you want to run for office? Do you want to backpack around the country? Do you want to teach a child to read? These are just a few ideas off the top of my head. Some of them I want to do, some I would not want to do. Write your own list. Try to reach one hundred items on the list.

When writing your bucket list, consider what you have written in your obituary.

Now go over your list. What are some of the things you could do right now? What are some things that you would love to do if you had the time, money, or whatever? What is the most important out of your comfort zone item on your list? Is there something that you could do today to begin toward that bucket list item?

Revisit These Two Lists Regularly

Revisit your obituary occasionally to see if you are getting closer to making this obituary a reality. Don’t be afraid to change something in your obituary that you realize that you don’t really want this. Perhaps you started down one path only to realize that was not what you wanted at all. It’s your life, how you want it to end is all up to you.

As you accomplish items on your list, cross them off the list.For everything that you cross off, add another item to the list. Try to keep 100 items on your list at all times. It . has been said that you should never remove anything from your bucket list until you have accomplished it. Keeping items on your bucket list that you no longer want to do allows you to see where you were in the past and how things have changed over time. This is up to you. After all, it is your list and your life. Make the most of it one day at a time.

Author Cygnet Brown, Donna Brown has published several nonfiction books including Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener, Using Diatomaceous Earth around the House and Yard, and Help from Kelp.

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues, and, A Coward’s Solace, Book III of the Locket Saga, Book IV of the Locket Saga: Sailing Under the Black Flag is also on sale now! Her latest book Book V of the Locket Saga: In the Shadow of the Millpond will soon be available in paperback and is now available to preorder on Kindle at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XKFCPQK She is also working on another nonficiton book: Living Today, The Power of Now.